Club Development

November 04 2017Photograph SIMON PIZZEYCirencester Tennis Club, New courts opened by club supporter Adrian Lees (centre)

Please note that the further priorities of the clubs development will be reviewed once we have completed the resurfacing of courts 1-4 and explored funding opportunities. The committee will be back in touch.

Court Resurfacing Information

You may have heard the expression, “your patience is much appreciated ” in the past as various courts have been cleaned or repainted. This time the work of replacing the front courts is much more involved but I’d like to assure everyone that a lot of effort is going into keeping the disruption to a minimum. As ever……. your patience is much appreciated.

This weekend the plan is to spray the courts with moss killer which shouldn’t be too disruptive. If you happen to find a person with a water tank on their back in your match, please just play a let if you can’t finish your amazing passing shot down the line.

During the week of the 9th Oct, the courts will be cleaned one at a time, this might even happen over the weekend of 14th 15th. This means 3 courts “should” be playable in the day and all courts in the evening. Whilst we have left these available on the court booking system please note that this is subject to change. We will do our best to let you know by email if the situation changes.

Also during the week commencing 9th October, evening drills and club night should continue as normal. Again, check the website for updates.

W/c 16th October is when the major work will start lasting for two weeks. The front courts will be out of action for this period.

EGM Outcome

Following an excellent discussion at the recent EGM I’m pleased to say it’s full steam ahead to renew the front four courts with artificial clay.

The installation will take up to three weeks to complete with work hopefully beginning the second week of October subject to weather.

As always your patience is appreciated during this time as there will obviously be huge disruption with the closure of our four principal courts. Where possible coaching and drill sessions will be accommodated on the back courts however for any evening or day sessions affected, Adam will be in touch nearer the time. We are also exploring the option of using St Michaels Park for Wednesday club nights during this period and will keep you posted

Once the work is completed the courts will take time to settle in and you will find sand turning up in very strange places! At the beginning it will feel like there’s too much sand but as I say this will settle down and everyone will soon learn not to take their tennis socks off in bed.

Notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting

Please note that here will be an Extraordinary General Meeting of Cirencester Tennis Club held at Cirencester Cricket Club on Thursday, 17th August 2017 at 19:30

The Agenda that will cover the matters for consideration is as follows:

New 30-year Lease

Change to the wording of the Club’s constitution (please see below)

Replacement of Courts 1-4 as part of the Club’s maintenance programme (explanatory document to follow)

Options of works agreed with the Bathurst Estate as part of the lease – prioritisation subject to funding

New wording for the ConstitutionTrustees
The Trustees of the Club shall be the elected officers of the Club.
From time to time Trustees may be required to sign legal agreements on behalf of the Club. In these cases the Trustees will not attract personal liability for those agreements, which will be accepted by the Club and then only to the extent of the assets of the Club.

CTC Development-Update to Members – 10th October 2016

At last year’s AGM Paul Harris announced the exciting news that the Bathurst Estate had agreed to grant us a new lease and allow us to make some improvements to the Club.

In early June we received the Heads of Agreement that will form the basis of the new lease. These are the main points from those HoA:

30 year lease from 29th September 2016.

Permission for an additional court adjacent to courts 4 and 7.

Permission for floodlights on the back courts.

Permission for new court surfaces.

Permission for a slightly larger clubhouse and toilets.

Help with improving the track.

The rent will go from £4k pa to £8.8k over the next 4 years, with £8.8k being the base for future contractual increases.

Since then we have established a sub-committee of George Brooks, Louise Horner-Baggs, Rachel Snowball, and Jonathan Vickers to manage the project, using third parties whenever necessary.

Clearly significant funding will be required to fulfill all our aims and we will need to explore options for where we may be able to access funding, be it in either loans or grants. The LTA is an obvious starting point and we have recently met with them to discuss the process and what is required to take this further. They informed us that the overall funds available have recently been reduced due to Sport England investing significantly less with the LTA. We will also be investigating other sources of funds including local companies, grants and organisations so if any members have expertise or contacts that may help do please let us know.

In the meantime we are carrying out detailed research work, ranging from reviewing current floodlighting and court surface technologies to the options of how we can improve or replace our clubhouse. Additionally, a business plan is being prepared so that the LTA and other possible funders can see the rationale behind the requests and the likely payback.

As many of you will know, Earl Bathurst is currently in hospital in Oxford slowly recovering from a dangerous illness. This has meant that the lease has not yet been signed but the Estate assures us that everything is in order and that we should take it that the lease will be signed in due course.

We have been advised that once we have costed all the work that we wish to carry out we will need to apply for any necessary planning permission etc before submitting our application for funding to the LTA. This process will take many months so whilst we will try and keep you updated don’t be concerned that you are not hearing more news! We are certainly aiming to move this forward as quickly as possible.

Once we have been advised of the amount of grants and loans we are likely to get, the Committee, after consulting with the Members, will establish a priority schedule for the work.

From now on, we will provide a regular update to the Members and post it on our website.